Bleach Redux (one-shot)
by Silentwater
Summary: Kurosakis had a bad habit of having trouble follow them wherever they go, and Natsumi was no exception. Whether this rambunctious teen knew it or not, she was going to follow in her father's footsteps. Future Ichiruki.


Bleach: Redux (one-shot)

Kurosakis had a bad habit of having trouble follow them wherever they go, and Natsumi was no exception. Whether she knew it or not, she was going to follow in her father's footsteps.

It was a typical day in the town of Karakura. The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. And students all over the town were peacefully making their way to school when the cries of a burly teen whimpering "sorry" over and over again suddenly shattered the peacefulness of the morning.

As he laid flat on the hard concrete of the middle of a road, a middle school girl who barely stood at a menacing height of 4'11" stood angrily above him with her foot pressed forcefully into the small of his back.

"Tell me what you're sorry about!" she scowled, driving her heel deeper into his back until he howled in pain.

"I'm sorry! So sorry fo-for sneaking a look at Remy-chan's pa-pa-pa-panties," he apologized whole-heartedly, but the she-devil would have none of it. She lifted her foot off of him but only to swing her leg right back to kick him.

"Natsumi, stop!"

At that moment, her foot stopped a centimeter short of making contact with the boy's side. She turned to look at her best friend, Remy, who was clutching at her arm to hold her back.

"I don't want you to get in trouble. I'm okay. Really!" The pretty bespectacled teen insisted.

The other girl frowned.

"If I don't teach this pervert a lesson, he is only going to prey on other girls, not just you Remy-chan," she deadpanned.

"I think he has learned his lesson. Please, Natsumi, you'll end up in detention again."

Natsumi sighed.

"Fine." The petite girl withdrew her deadly leg. "But if I ever catch you doing something vulgar again, I WILL make you pay."

"Ha-hai!" The burly teen stuttered.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get out of my sight before I change my mind." She hissed, and in the blink of an eye, the teenage boy scrambled to his feet and ran as far as could away from the two girls.

Remy released a sigh, then turned to Natsumi with hands on her hips and gave her her best scolding face.

"You know…my parents said that even though your dad was seen as a delinquent, he tried his best to not act like one." She started, but Natsumi would have none of it.

"I'm not being a delinquent. I'm simply living by **my father's** creed to protect others." The shorter girl scoffed.

"Still…if you get one more detention slip, you will be expelled. Then what would auntie Rukia say?"

Natsumi's face blanched at her mother's name.

"Co-come on. Let's get to school before the bell rings." She attempted to change the subject but her friend could see right through her. Natsumi's mother was the center of her universe, so it went without saying that she hated disappointing her. One look of disapproval from her mother was enough to make the strong-willed girl feel sorry for eternity.

Remy laughed.

"All right. Let's go."

* * *

"Okaa-san. tadaima!" Natsumi hollered as soon as she stepped foot over the threshold. She kicked off her shoes then proceeded to head towards the kitchen where she found not her mother, but her father, sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

"Oh, papa. It's just you." She stated nonchalantly, causing a bulging vein to form above her father's orange brow.

"What? Just me?" his voice rose with indignation. "Aren't you my child too? Why do you call your mother so cheerfully but completely disregard your father?" He pointed an accusing finger at her.

At the end of that finger was just a cheeky smile on his daughter's face.

"Because oji-san (grandpa) said it would be funny to see your reaction." She quipped.

Ichigo's grip on the newspaper in his hands tightened instantaneously as he fumed.

"That old goat chin!"

Natsumi laughed.

"Oh, Papa, you and Oji-san are a lot more alike than you want to admit."

"Wha-? Don't say that!" Ichigo sputtered, his face blanching at the thought of being compared to Isshin. He was prepared to scold his daughter for even making such a suggestion when a strong feminine voice suddenly echoed throughout their home.

"Tadaima."

Natsumi's face immediately lit up.

"Kaa-san!"

As soon as Rukia stepped into the kitchen, Natsumi launched herself at her mother, tackling her into a hug.

Rukia laughed, as she watched her husband pout out of jealousy at the affection their daughter showed her.

"Welcome home!" The girl smiled brightly as her mother patted her head gently in response.

"How was your day, Natsumi?"

"Good!"

"Really? So you didn't beat up a punk on your way to school?" Rukia replied, giving her daughter a knowing look.

Natsumi's face blanched. All of a sudden, her eyes dared not meet her mother's gentle, smiling face.

She sweat-dropped.

"Eh heh. How did you find out about that?" She uttered out sheepishly.

"Well…mothers DO have a tendency to know almost everything about their children, you know."

Despite the calm expression on Rukia's face, the aura around her, on the other hand, was actually quite chilly.

'Crap I'm in trouble.'

"Wa-wait! Before you get upset, mama, you need to know that I beat up that pervert only because he had flipped up Remy-chan's skirt! I was just protecting my friend." Natsumi defended. She then looked towards her father for support.

"Papa, isn't that what you have always taught me?"

Ichigo simply chuckled in the background, and proceeded to give his daughter a playful smirk.

"Hmmm… What's this? Is it only when you're in trouble that you recognize your papa?"

Natsumi pouted at him.

"You're no help!" she accused, making Ichigo snort before he decided to set his cup of coffee aside and waltz over to where his wife and daughter were standing.

He then wrapped a muscular arm around his petite wife's shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze to calm her down.

"Rukia, what Natsumi did was technically not wrong. We DID tell her that you should teach punks like those a lesson."

"Yes we did, but…we also promised her teacher and principal that Natsumi would stay out of trouble for the rest of the semester. It's only been two days and she's already in another fight."

"Hey, it's not my fault my school is full of troublemakers." Natsumi interjected. "If they didn't start so many problems, I wouldn't have to be in so many scuffles."

"You could just avoid it." Her mother deadpanned.

"So I'm supposed to just stand on the sidelines and watch punks harass innocent people? That's a load of cra-" Natsumi paused when she saw her father shaking his head furiously from side to side comically behind her mother, as one of her mother's eyebrows rose in anticipation for the swear word she was about to utter.

"…crackers. That's a load of crackers."

Rukia sighed.

"I'm not telling you to do that. You can always get a teacher or a police officer to handle the issue."

Natsumi snorted at the suggestion.

"But mama, by the time I get them, the punks would have run off and then nothing would have changed."

"That's not true! They will still document the incident and…" Rukia watched as her daughter rolled her eyes and she could not help but feel a headache coming on. "You know what. Just go to your room. I'll talk to you later since it doesn't look like you're even listening to me."

"What? Am I seriously being punished?" Natsumi protested, looking towards her father once again for help.

"Natsumi, just do what your mother says." Ichigo stated calmly, as he gently nudged her towards her room.

"Fine. Be that way." The teen pouted as she stomped her way towards her room, slamming the door shut immediately behind her.

Rukia and Ichigo winced.

"Oi, that temper of hers." Rukia sighed.

"Yeah, she must've gotten that from you." Ichigo joked, earning him a glare from his unamused wife, as he sat himself back down at the dining room table.

"Do you want to be sent to your room too?" The petite woman threatened, but her husband just grinned even more widely.

"Come on! Lighten up, Rukia. She didn't do anything wrong. Not really."

"Why don't you try explaining that to her principal then?" She retorted. "Besides…" Her brows furrowed into a look of deep thought. "That's not what upsets me."

"Oh so you've noticed too." Ichigo took a sip at the last bit of his coffee before continuing. "She's starting to leak spiritual energy."

"Of course I've noticed. I'm her mother." She crossed her arms. "I've also noticed that she exudes it more prominently when she gets riled up in fights. That's why I want to keep her out of them. With her spiritual energy growing stronger with each day, she's going to start attracting a lot of unwanted attention."

Rukia frowned.

"We need to keep a closer eye on her."

"I know. But maybe," Ichigo paused, to look at his wife, "we should tell her everything first."

* * *

"Mwah. How could they punish me?"

The Kurosaki teen whined as she rolled from side to side on her bed, letting her long black hair become disheveled from her ponytail, as she hugged a giant pink stuffed rabbit in her arms.

"This is so unfair, Chappy." She pouted. "Mama and papa are being unreasonable. I haven't been punished since I was a little kid!"

As she let her head dangle over the side of her bad, something suddenly caught her eye and forced her to sit up and turn around.

A little girl, no more than 5 years old was just sitting in the middle of her room, staring at her curiously with large tearful puppy eyes.

"Nee-chan?" the little girl questioned when she realized that the teen was staring right back at her.

"Wah!" Natsumi screamed, scrambling to the other side of the room. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

The more Natsumi looked at her, the more she noticed that she could see right through the little girl. Her eyes widened. A ghost? She grabbed the closest thing she could find and held it against the child, who in turn shied away in fear.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Natsumi stammered, as she tightened her grip over the kendo staff in her hands.

Tears began to well at the corners of the little ghost girl's eyes, as she wailed, "Nee-chan. I'm scared!"

An ounce of guilt crept its way into the teenager's heart, as she watched the ghost girl proceed to sob like any other scared little kid.

"Wa-wait! Don't cry! I'm sorry! You just surprised me. That's all!" The teen babbled, as she offered the child a box of tissues, then vaguely wondered if ghost tears could be dried by material tissues.

"It's not that. It's the monster." The girl sniffled.

"Monster? What monster?"

At that very moment, a loud shriek pierced through the air, sending shivers down the young Kurosaki's spine.

She looked outside her window to search for the source of the sound. Squinting, she managed to make out a large snake-like monster with scythe for arms and a bony head slither across the sky with a figure clad in a black chasing after it with a sword in hand.

"Is that it?" She uttered out, unable to tear her eyes away from it. The spirit child only clutched tightly at the end of Natsumi's sleeve and nodded.

Suddenly the monster turned around and, at breakneck speed, it struck at its pursuer. With baited breath, Natsumi watched as the figure barely dodge the attack before he counterattacked with a quick swing of his sword, slicing off one of the monster's scythe-like arms.

The monster let out another shriek.

It looked like it was going to be all over for the monster. The swordsman had taken up a final stance then swung his blade down, releasing a wave of crimson red flames at the creature.

"He did it!" Natsumi could not help but cheer for the unknown hero. "Now there's nothing to be scared about anymore." She smiled at the spirit girl, patting her on the head as if to assure her that everything was going to be all right from now on.

But then there was a loud crash. Looking back at where the swordsman was standing before, Natsumi gasped as she saw multiple sharp barbs extend from the now ashen-black creature, penetrating into the swordsman as it sent him soaring into the side of a building.

'_Oh no!'_

"I have to do something!"

With that said, the teen slid her window wide open and with a mighty kick off the ledge of the third story window, she landed on the rooftop of the neighboring house, and then proceeded to run and skip from roof to roof, heading towards the area where she last saw the swordsman fall.

"Nee-chan! Come back!" The spirit girl wailed behind her. Feeling helpless, she began to cry but stopped short when the door to the room was suddenly busted open by the household's patriarch.

"Natsumi!" Ichigo shouted. Noticing the open window, the citrus-haired father felt a blood vessel above his brow begin to pulse in annoyance. "Damn it! Did she really just sneak out after we sent her to her room?!" He fumed.

He was about to march right out of the room when he finally noticed the little ghost girl, who was just staring at him, frightened.

"You wouldn't happen to know where she went, do you?" He asked gently, as he kneeled down to face the child at eye level.

"She w-went after th-the monster." The spirit whimpered out before letting tears well under her eyes once again. "What if she gets hurt?"

"Monster?" Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise. A hollow? Wait. She could see those now? A look of deep concern made itself apparent, as his brows furrowed into a scowl. This wasn't good.

He patted the child on the head.

"It's okay. I'll find her. Thank you for your help." He smiled kindly before he stood up to rummage through his pockets for a green pill. Seconds after popping it into his mouth, the girl watched in awe as his soul became separated from his body.

The mister, who was now clad in a black hakama, knelt in front of her again, then placed the end of his sword against her forehead, stamping it with a seal.

"Don't worry. I'm sending you to a peaceful place called Soul Society." He explained, as the child began to float towards a light.

"What about the nee-chan?" the child asked worriedly.

"I'll rescue her. Just go in peace."

The shinigami smiled as the spirit nodded in understanding before dissipating into thin air. He then turned his attention back towards his human body.

"Kon, tell Rukia what happened. I'm going to go after Natsumi."

"Yes, sir!"

With that said, he bolted out of the window and flash-stepped in the direction where he felt his impulsive daughter's reiatsu spike.

'Please, let nothing happen to her before I get there.'

* * *

Natsumi didn't think twice before she chucked a piece of rubble at the monster to distract it from attacking the weary swordsman, who was currently on his knees with only his sword to support him from keeling over.

The monster slowly turned to her, its yellow-black eyes narrowing at her.

For a moment, Natsumi felt her legs quiver beneath her. Just what was this thing? She wondered in fear, when a deluge of barbed projectiles suddenly shot out of the creature's mouth.

"Look out!" She heard the swordsman cry out.

Regaining her composure just a split second before the attack could hit her, Natsumi jumped out of the way and spun her kendo staff to evade the rest of the attack. Then, wasting no time at all, she charged towards the monster, and jumped as high as she could, bringing her staff down on the monster's head.

"Haaaaaah!" She screamed, as she put all her strength into the attack, causing a crack to form in the monster's bony mask. Taking the opportunity to strike once again, she brought her deadly leg right down onto the cracked spot, causing it to crack even more. The monster began to thrash and wail as it clutched its head in pain.

"Take that." Natsumi smirked, as she skidded to a landing on the ground once again.

Her victory didn't last very long when a stream of hundreds of scythes began to project rapidly out of the thrashing monster towards her.

Before Natsumi could even react, she was suddenly swept out of the way.

"Are you okay?" She heard a deep baritone voice ask.

She looked up at the face of her savior, and was surprised to see such a scary face staring back at her.

"Waaah!" She screamed. She supposed that the young swordsman would have been very handsome if it weren't for the rivulets of blood streaming down his face from the top of his head.

"What? Are you hurt?" he asked worriedly, his turquoise eyes widening in shock.

"No. I'm fine. Thanks." She uttered out sheepishly. "It's just that you're bleeding…a lot."

With all that blood loss, how was he not dead? She wondered.

"I'll be fine. For now let's get out of here. I'm going to need back up." He replied before he flash-stepped them away from the monster that was now in pursuit of them.

"By the way, I'm Andou." He grinned, making his face look a lot less scary than before.

The petite teen smiled back.

"Natsumi." She introduced. "Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. Nice to meet you too, Andou." A voice familiar to Natsumi suddenly chimed in.

Looking away from Andou, the Kurosaki teen was nothing but shocked to see her own father also running in midair with a black sword in each hand.

"Thank you for saving my rambunctious daughter. Now please put her down, kozou (brat)." Ichigo requested through gritted teeth. How dare this pretty boy carry his little girl like he was her bride! With one arm around her waist and another under her bare legs, the nerve of this opportunistic brat! Ichigo could feel another blood vessel nearly burst out of his forehead.

After flash-stepping to the nearest open space, Andou finally let Natsumi down on a park bench.

"Thank you." She smiled again.

"For a pretty girl, any time." The young shinigami winked.

"Ahem!" Ichigo cleared his throat, clearly not amused by the flirtation that was unfolding before him.

"Papa, what are you doing here?"

"To save you, of course," Ichigo replied, "Now sit tight. I'm going to take care of the hollow first, and then we're going to have a long talk about everything, including this." He said, scowling as he pointed to both her and the shinigami standing beside her.

With that said, he took off from the ground and ricocheted himself towards the evil spirit that finally came into view.

Natsumi and Andou could only watch in amazement as her father lunged at the monster and cleanly sliced off all of its many arms in a matter of seconds.

"Bankai!" he shouted, as wave of black crackling energy was released from his blades, cutting the hollow into several pieces. It shrieked and hollered and thrashed, cursing the shinigami, before it finally disintegrated.

When it was done and over with, Ichigo returned to his daughter's side and immediately held her by the shoulders as he took a glance over her.

"Natsumi, were you hurt in any way?"

The Kurosaki youth shook her head.

"I'm fine, papa. Thanks, but what's going on? What was that thing? And when did you start slaying them? Does mama know you do this?" She babbled, her cobalt eyes widening with each question she could rattle off the top of her head.

"I'll explain it all when we get home. I promise." Her father replied, releasing a sigh of relief to see his daughter as lively as ever. He then glanced over her to look at the pretty boy shinigami, who was sitting at a park bench rubbing the blood off his face with the back of his sleeve.

"Let's go. We'll get this kid cleaned up and then we'll talk."

"Okay."

As they helped the young man up, Ichigo briefly turned back around to look at where he last slew the hollow. For some reason, he felt a strange disturbance in the air. He squinted, and the more he looked at it, the more he could have sworn that he saw something appearing again.

"It can't be…" he muttered, when sharp projectiles suddenly skimmed pass him, leaving deep cuts across his arm.

"Papa!" Natsumi cried.

"Some no mai…tsukishirou!"

A column of ice appeared out of nowhere, but at the very center of the column, they could all see that there was a remnant of the monster's bony mask appearing as though it was slowly regenerating in place.

"Mama!"

"Natsumi! Ichigo!" Rukia exclaimed, hugging her daughter before taking a look at her husband's injured arm. "Are you all right?"

"It's just a small scratch." He replied, but the moment his wife started to wrap his wounds with a piece of cloth ripped off of her uniform, he winced despite his initial bravado.

"I thought that thing was gone."

"Apparently not, but hopefully with this final attack, it will be." Rukia replied, as the column of ice suddenly shattered into a million pieces.

A victorious smirk made its way across the ex-vice-captain's face before it was replaced with a frown. She turned her attention towards her daughter.

"Natsumi, just what were you thinking? Do you realize how much danger you were putting yourself in?" She scolded.

The teen cringed at her mother's words.

"I'm sorry." She uttered out meekly, avoiding her gaze, but it didn't take long before Natsumi felt as though she should at least get the chance to defend her actions. "But Andou here would have been killed if I didn't do anything."

Her mother's eyes darted to the young man who was still being supported at both sides by her husband and daughter. Finally noticing his injury, she then placed her hand over the top of the shinigami rookie's head and chanted a healing spell until a warm green light sealed his wounds.

"Are you all right, soldier?" She asked warmly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." Rukia let the ends of her lips curve upward slightly in relief before her eyes started to narrow back at her daughter. "Now as for you, young lady…despite your good intentions, you still almost gave me and your father a heart attack."

"I'm sorry." The teen apologized again. She looked down at her feet as thought awaiting punishment, but it never came.

Instead, the shinigami power couple just looked at the sorry look on their daughter's face and sighed.

"Natsumi…actually, we need to apologize as well." Rukia started, surprising the girl, "We have been hiding who we were from you."

"Mama…?"

"Natsumi, it's about time you learned about shinigami, hollows, and everything involving them."

"Eh…?"

* * *

"I'm a what now?"

An incredulous look made its way onto Natsumi's face as her parents looked at each other and realized their mistake in starting their explanation with…

"You're a shinigami…" Her father deadpanned, but after giving it a bit more thought, he began to spout other things that were all nonsensical to his daughter. "Well…you're actually part-shinigami. You're also part-Quincy and maybe part-Hollow too. That might be debatable. "

"Wait. What's a Quincy? And did you say I was part monster?"

"Ah right, we should explain that too, huh?" Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck, as he pondered where they should begin their story.

"Okay here's the deal. It started when your mother saved me and my family…"

A whole afternoon in their living room passed as Ichigo and Rukia took turns explaining their history of not only war, betrayal, loss, and despair, but also victory, friendship, peace and solace.

By the end of all of it, Natsumi was simply stuck in a state of stunned amazement of all the things her parents had been through.

"So…after peace was established, you guys just decided to settle in the human world to raise a family?"

"Yes."

"But what about your duties?"

"We still guard this town from hollows. We gave up our positions in the Gotei, but we're not completely retired."

"I see…" Natsumi uttered out loud, still deep in thought as she did her best to absorb everything. "So now what? Now that I know you guys are shinigami, are you going to return to the Gotei 13?"

"Well we haven't decided anything yet. But your mother and I was thinking that it was about time we trained you to wield a zanpakatou. You already have all the makings of a swordsman due to your kendo lessons. We just need to teach you the more advanced stuff."

"Really? I can be a shinigami too?" Natsumi's face immediately lit up. In her excitement, she almost knocked a stack of magazines off the coffee table as she leaned over it to look at her parents' faces, just to make sure that they were being serious about this.

It only took a small nod of affirmation from her mother to get the girl jumping up and down in delight.

"I can't believe it! When can I use a zanpakatou? Tomorrow? Tonight?"

"Whoa. One step at a time! The first thing we want you to do is at least learn how to control your spiritual energy. Leaking reiatsu attracts spirits of all kinds. Good and bad. We don't want you to get hurt because of it."

"I see…" Natsumi frowned in disappointment. "Okay so how do I do that?"

"You'll find out tomorrow. It's getting late. You should go to bed."

"Awww…fine." Natsumi pouted, as she headed towards her room. "Good night then. And…" She turned to the shinigami who was just chilling on their living room couch. "Good night Andou."

"Good night, Natsumi-san." The young man flashed her a smile. A blush immediately rose to her cheeks, as she looked away shyly.

"All right. Enough of that. Go to bed young lady." Ichigo frowned. As soon as she was in her room, he turned to the shinigami and glared at him. "Now that that's done…what are you still doing here, kozou?"

"Well it's not every day you get to meet the legendary Kurosaki Ichigo and the honorable Kuchiki-fukutaichou." He replied cheekily with a charming grin.

"What do you want?" Ichigo scowled.

"Fine, I have to send a report back to my division to let them know about the hollow we faced today." Andou crossed his hands together as a serious expression took over the features of his face. "I just wanted to know what you two thought of it. It was strange, right?"

The power couple's eyes hardened as they both nodded in agreement.

"It was. We've never encountered a hollow that could come back to life before." Rukia admitted. "To have such hollow running around definitely makes them all the more troublesome."

"In that case, you should send reports to the 12th division in addition to your own." Ichigo suggested as he carefully thought about the situation. "They need to know about them right away so that they can find out how to take care of them."

"What about Natsumi-san?"

"What about her?" The parents asked, curious of the shinigami's attention towards their daughter.

"She possesses a huge amount of spiritual power. Until she gains control of it, she is surely going to attract a lot of unwanted attention."

"That's why we're going to be keeping a constant eye on her."

"Like you did today?"

"We didn't know she could see spirits until today. How were we supposed to know she ran off looking to fight one?" The citrus-haired father defended. "Of course we'll do a better job watching her from now on!"

"Well, if you ever need someone to be a constant guardian, I'd like to offer my services."

"You wish!" Outraged, the father flipped the coffee table over, as his wife watched him with mild annoyance as he put the young man into a chokehold.

"Ichigo…that's enough." She sighed, closing her eyes. "Besides, I don't think it's such a bad idea."

"What?!" Ichigo yelped, still not releasing Andou from his grasp.

"She needs someone to protect her until she is properly trained. We can't always be there 24/7. It wouldn't be bad to have him around since he offered."

At that moment, Ichigo released the shinigami to pull the ex-vice captain aside.

"Are you sure you want to keep this guy around our little girl? He looks like a playboy and obviously has an ulterior motive!" He hissed.

"Do you have a better idea?" She whispered back.

"Yeah, don't let that guy anywhere near her!"

"I'm sure it will be fine. We raised her well. Our daughter can handle herself in life and in love." She deadpanned, but Ichigo wasn't convinced.

"It's the 'love' part that makes me worried." He mumbled under his breath, but Rukia just rolled her eyes before she turned back around to face the young man again.

"Andou-san, you're hired."

"Thank you, Kurosaki-san. I will not fail you." Andou replied, standing up to bow respectfully at the two. While this action earned him a look of mild approval from the matriarch of the family, it did not impress the father in the very least.

"Very well. Now, please excuse me… I'm going to pay Urahara a little visit to tell him about the unusual hollow. He might be able to figure something out before the 12th division does." Rukia stated, walking away and leaving the two males alone.

As soon as she was out of sight, Ichigo took a few steps towards the young shinigami, stopping in his tracks the moment he got to the point where he was standing right beside him. Without even looking at him, the older man placed a hand on the soldier's shoulder and in a low growl, he warned him "If she gets hurt in any way, whether by an enemy or by you, be assured that I will not hesitate to point my sword at you."

If Andou was a lesser man, he would have lost his composure from the threat, but instead he steeled himself against the older man's hardened gaze.

"Don't worry, sir. I will not let anything harm your daughter." He replied.

Without saying another word, the father finally released his grip on Andou's shoulder and left him standing alone in the middle of the room.

The moment he was gone, the young man finally relaxed and released a sigh of relief that he didn't even realize he was holding.

Man…he had no idea what he had just signed up for.

* * *

Meanwhile… inside a supposedly abandoned ivory-white castle in the dark vast desert of Hueco Mundo…

"My lord, another one of your regenerating hollows has been defeated. It regenerated twice before it was finally killed."

A tall man wearing a bony mask that extended from his cheek all the way down to his neck stepped out of the shadows and pushed his glasses up as he read his report.

Across the room from him was another man, taller and paler in appearance, who was just watching two figures spar in the distance outside his window. This man allowed the corners of his lips fall just ever so slightly. With his eyes still focused on the fight, he asked,

"So they still have a limit to how many times they can come back to life?"

Sensing the hint of displeasure in his master's voice, the bespectacled man subconsciously withdrew into the shadows of the room, as he continued his report.

"Yes, my lord." He bowed apologetically. "It's unfortunate but until we have a steady source to supply endless spiritual energy to our hollows, there will always be a limit."

The lord's hands suddenly tightened around the edges of the windowsill.

"But, there is good news."

"What is it?" The pale man growled.

"A large depot of spiritual energy has been confirmed during this encounter."

"And…?"

"It is harbored within the child that helped defeat the hollow. With some research, it turns out that she is the child of the infamous Kurosaki Ichigo." His assistant stated matter-of-factly.

The lord turned around to face his subordinate with his brow arched in piqued interest.

"Is that so?"

"It seems that the amount of energy she has surpasses even her father."

A low chuckle began to bubble in the villain's throat before it suddenly erupted into a maniacal laugh.

"Well…then what are we waiting for?! Obtain the child…while she's still young and vulnerable. With her in our possession, we just might finally succeed in making a hollow immortal."

"As you wish, sir." His assistant replied, bowing as he ducked away into the shadows once more.

"Excellent." The man smirks. Excellent…

* * *

Author's Note: Well that's the end. In case you're wondering, this story was meant to be a one-shot/preview kind of thing. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry I couldn't keep writing it because I ran out of inspiration halfway through, but if someone would like to adopt the story, I don't mind. Please message me if you want to take it over. But in other news, I will be leaving , so this is my final story. If you're a follower, thank you for sticking with me so far. I'm only sorry that I couldn't finish all the stories I have written thus far due to all of the stuff that's going on in my life right now. It's been hectic to say the least. In any case, I appreciate all of my readers and hope that they won't be too angry with me for leaving (since I've kind of been on hiatus anyways). ~ Silent


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